So, do your leak down test. If it shows no, or very little leakage, then the leak is elsewhere(oil cooler or turbo), and you indeed dodged a bullet. Then follow oldblue's instructions.

If you have bad leakage, into the cooling system(and probably crankcase also), then you'll be needing to tear it down and inspect.

 

Here is our how-to, there's a modification in there that's needed for cheapo testers.
https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/how-...-engine-56053/

 

A thought occurred to me. The low engine oil level could potentially be unrelated to the muck in the coolant. If you have an automatic transmission, it could be ATF in the coolant. This would indicate a bad radiator. Unlikely, but possible.

 

yea I wish you did also ontario is quite a ways

 

Low engine oil.
Ran it extremely hot.
Muck in the coolant.

Honestly. With all that it's pretty certain that the engine is fried. No flush or oil change is going to magically fix it.

 

Im pretty sure that muck in the coolant gummed up the thermostat & wasnt allowing fluid to pass through . of couse that is a consequence of the other problem
Wish the hell I had caught this sooner -- Was still running strong 23 psi right before I noticed the temp warning light . If the turbo had puked so to speak would I not have noticed a loss in performance or something . As I say running just as good as it ever was till I parked it .

 

keep in mind once I saw how hot it was I was 3-4 mins from home where I parked it - but I guess what you are saying is that once it gets that hot no matter how short a peroid of time the engine most likely is toast .

 

But you can try and clean out the cooling system, remove the oil cooler and see if that is the leak point, if it’s leaking replace the oil cooler.
there is the possibility you may only have that issue.
all logic and experience tells us other wise.

 

It is possible that the head gasket was improperly done by the PO. I would just pull the head and check the head gasket before giving up on the motor. You’re gonna do it anyway because the leakdown test can prove it’s a bad head gasket but it can’t prove is isn’t.

 

I know Dexcool is recommended for our cars , but does anyone know why ? reason Im asking is I have a lot of generic coolant in my garage & dont want to go & buy more if this wont hurt anything .
Im the person from a previous post that had oil mixing with my coolant -- Had the oil cooler & thermostat replaced & have flushed the system a few times
with mean Green as well as stuff I go t from advance - Still an oil resesidue in my coolant --I will try flushing again & see what happens - got my fingers crossed - The thermostat was definitly gummed up that caused the overheating